COVID-19 has changed the country irrevocably and the fallout will last for decades if not centuries. There is no way to foretell all the many ways that the world will be different because of the pandemic, but some architects are looking to past styles when thinking about future construction. Everything old is new again.

Many entire industries are sheltering in place and working from home, but construction is one sector that is often referred to as ‘essential’, meaning that the workers have to continue on the job and do their best to maintain social distance. But new technology is right around the corner that may put workers at home, behind a desk.

We’ve seen many different attempts at reinventing the brick lately, as the production process of the material—and the energy consumption of brick structures—isn’t good for the environment. The Brick Development Association (BDA) says in their 2019 Sustainability Report that brick manufacturing is “energy intensive” and “involves firing clay bricks to over 1000 degrees C.” Another material that can be used to make bricks is concrete, made from water, sand or gravel aggregate, and cement. Over 4 billion metric tons of cement are produced annually which accounts for roughly 8% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. So, while bricks are an essential commodity for construction, new solutions to produce them is always being sought.

A new kind of bridge manufacturing method, nicknamed the umbrella method, has been introduced in Germany, and it promises an entirely new, revolutionary way to span bridges without extensive scaffolding.

Project management software giant Procore Technologies Inc has held its cards close to its chest in the decision to go public, but last Friday the answer came forth loud and clear as the company filed the paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing its plans for an initial public offering (IPO). No date for the IPO has been set, but they say it will happen in the “near future”.

While robots and autonomous equipment has been used for mapping and scanning jobsites, for the first time fully autonomous heavy equipment has been introduced and is getting ready to be put on the market.

If you were to guess which country on earth had the highest agriculture exports, you’d probably pick the United States, and you’d be right. But if you were to pick second place? Would it be Canada, with its vast land area? China, with their bustling export business? It would have to be a big country, wouldn’t it? Known for cutting edge technology?

What was once a material originally engineered for the construction of airplanes, thermoset technology is increasingly being contemplated in the production of not only specific building features, but the entire way buildings are designed.

Construction zones on roadways have always been dangerous, and many strategies have been tried to deal with them, including increasing fines for speeding in those areas, increasing patrols by law enforcement, and giving construction workers the power to tag and report reckless drivers.

On this blog we’ve covered the topic of sustainable construction and the carbon footprint of buildings before, to the point where it may seem like a broken record. But a new technology has turned the sustainable construction field on its head: fungus.

According to the National Science Board’s 2020 Vision for the National Science Foundation, these are two exciting materials to watch in the coming year.

A new study by FMI Corp, sponsored by Procore Technologies, found that contractors are not only not taking advantage of existing technological advancements in their current work, but don’t have a plan in place to implement new technologies in the future. This is concerning, though not surprising, as construction has traditionally been slow to adopt new technology despite the promise of savings and efficiency.

As we’ve mentioned on this blog before, concrete and concrete production leaves a massive carbon footprint—approximately 6% of all carbon released into the atmosphere comes just from the laying of concrete. These new technologies are seeking to mitigate that in new and exciting ways.

Expected to reach $54 billion by 2023, the wearable tech market offers to transform the construction industry through the ability to improve safety and efficiency.

When it comes to using technology on a jobsite, smart phones are the go-to device. Nearly 93% of respondents to the JBKnowledge ConTech report said they use smart phones for their work, more than laptops (83%) and tablets (64%). The use of smart phones by construction professionals has grown nearly 21%.

High-tech “smart cities” are becoming all the rage over the last twenty years, but there is currently pushback on many fronts saying that what we need are “dumber” cities—ditching the data and embracing the lessons learned over the past millennia.

Armatron Systems, an Arizona-based 3D Construction company has secured a patent for an on-site printer that officials say can create a 60-foot-long slab of concrete in less than a minute—and not just lay the concrete, but set the concrete, so it can bear weight. This rapid slip-form mold extrusion process limits bubbles and air in the concrete which shortens the curing time, which allows not just for long slabs, but curvilinear forms as well.

Drones fulfill many roles in the construction sphere, everything from giving a basic overhead view of the jobsite to maintaining track of materials, machinery and people. Contractors use them from everything from comparing as-planned construction projects to as-built projects, as well as optimizing the grade of the terrain and recording images and videos. Their usefulness can be increased with thermal cameras, mapping tools, and GPS units.

In April of 2019, an electrical fire in the roof of the Notre Dame de Paris, a cathedral that has stood as a national and international landmark for 850 years, sparked a blaze that tore through the ceiling beams and partially collapsed the roof. However much a tragedy, architects are turning lemons into lemonade by using the reconstruction process to determine just how, exactly, the magnificent cathedral was built and stood so solidly for so many centuries.

Mobile apps for construction technology are hh2’s bread and butter, but you may be surprised to learn just how prevalent mobile apps are in the construction workforce. According to the 2019 JBKnowledge ConTech report, 93% of respondents say that they use their smart phones for work, more than laptops (83%) and tablets (64%). The use of smart phones in the industry has grown 21% since 2014.

There are many shake ups in the world of architecture in the last year. Africa’s tallest building was completed. Europe’s first underwater restaurant launched. Architects and regular citizens alike watched in horror as the Notre Dame de Paris burned.

Dubai, a city of excess, which claims the tallest building in the world—the Burj Khalifa, at 2,722 feet tall—is now trying for another record: the world’s largest 3D printed building.

A slogan that we heard as kids in school has entered a more professional lexicon: the world of architecture. Yes, architecture has long been about trying to be more sustainable and there have been some extreme cases of recycling products to build modern structure, but now it’s taking on a whole new meaning as modern architects increasingly look for ways to make their buildings environmentally friendly, cheaper, and even more beautiful.

We’ve talked about a lot of construction trends over the past year—some growing and some waning—but here are five things that we feel confident about saying will be dominant trends in construction in 2020.

Until recently, talk of robotics on jobsites has mainly been experimental. Brick-laying robots, 3D printers, and rebar tying bots have been the primary presence of robotics on the industry. The promise of robots has always been that they could lower operating costs and save labor, but they have never been cheap or efficient—at least not as cheap and efficient as necessary to replace existing technologies and trends. But now, when the labor shortage has grown so drastically, and efficiency is down so much, robots are finally becoming a more appealing solution.

Wearable tech has been part of construction jobsites over the last few years, but analysts predict you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Two years ago, the first ever 3D printed house was built in Texas in less than 24 hours. Now a new organization in Mexico is aiming to curb homelessness with a new 3D printed community. The homes, which are 500 square feet each, are all printed in approximately one day. So far, two test homes have been constructed, with plans to expand greatly.

It was not a surprise that 3D printing made a huge surge in the last year, as we’ve seen it used everywhere from the printing of entire concrete homes to fabricating delicate roof structures. But there may be a surprise in all the many applications we’ve seen it used in this year. Here are just a few:

The prevailing train of thought in environmentalism has long been to plant more trees, but it may be that forestry has more than one way it can help reduce climate change.

At an October construction technology conference in Singapore, Atkins CEO Keith Clarke told executives that if global temperatures rise two degrees Celsius in the next 20 years then instead of worrying about their pensions they should instead “buy a shotgun” because of “mass migrations, upheaval, and extinctions.”

We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about two things: the slow, but increasing acceptance of technology into the construction industry, and the drastic labor shortage of skilled workers. But it may just be that the improvement of one will improve both.

In an age where construction robotics are the next new thing on the horizon, it might surprise you to learn that the first brick-laying robot was designed and featured in 1967. Claimed to be able to lay bricks five to ten times faster than the tradition by-hand method, it claimed to be the idea of the future. Attached by rail to a wall, the Motor Mason was an intriguing experiment, but ultimately a flash in the pan.

The observatory of One World Trade Center, the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex, has a distinct smell to it. Aside from offering 360 degree views of New York City, the observatory has piped in the smell of trees and plants native to New York: beeches, mountain ashes, and red maples.

For years we’ve seen Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot making viral videos walking, climbing, jumping, and doing other gymnastics. But now it’s going to get some jobsite training.

Everyone remembers Ellen Ripley donning the yellow construction exoskeleton and battling the mother alien, but did you know that construction exoskeletons are in use today?

Just under five thousand American died on the job in 2017, and 20% of them were construction workers, according to statistics from the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA). Of those deaths, 381 were falls, 80 were struck by an object, 71 were electrocutions, and 50 were caught-in/between. These are known in construction as the Fatal Four.

Every contractor fears an unknown problem leading to a lawsuit, and new technologies are being introduced more and more to combat those fears and safeguard contractors. Three main categories of technologies are coming forward: scheduling software, 3D modeling tools, and data collection devices.

In an industry that is traditionally resistant to technological changes, it may be surprising to learn that the construction industry is forecasted to spend $4 billion in artificial intelligence by 2026. While Power Tools has covered many stories of robots on the job site, this artificial intelligence is expected to come in the form of planning and forecasting software.

Built at the Kennedy Space Center pad complex, the new launch and landing facilities for the SpaceX Starship Mk2 prototype rocket are heavy construction. Although work only began three weeks ago, photos show heavy equipment has already cleared a large area next to the 39A ramp.

Engineering News-Record reports on a new trend that is saving time, money, and lives. For inexperienced workers, virtual reality interfaces are helping to spot errors before they become significant. In fact,the report says that construction workers with less than three years of experience are able to double their ability to spot design errors using a 3D model.

A new house built in Switzerland, designed by the ETH Zurich University, could be one of the first steps in a construction revolution. The DFAB house (digital fabrication) was developed by the university and two dozen partners as part of the Next Evolution in Sustainable Technologies (NEST)project.

Not much has changed in the home construction industry in the last fifty years. Workers show up to a site, dig, pour, frame, sheath, and finish a house, with a nationwide average cost of $428,000 a piece. And that’s when there’s proper space to find that jobsite and enough skilled laborers to do the work.

We’ve all seen a construction project tear up existing grass, trees, shrubs and earth—temporarily, to be replanted and “restored” later. But what impact does the temporary disruption really have on the landscape, fauna, and human usage?

While we try to keep you informed on construction news, there’s so much that we at PowerTools can’t cover. Here is a list of ten great construction-related podcasts that can help you keep abreast of everything newsworthy in the industry.

As we’ve discussed at length on this blog, the labor shortage is requiring construction companies to look outside the box to solve their productivity problems, and they are increasingly turning to technology. The progress has been relatively slow compared of other automated fields, such as manufacturing, but progress is being made, and new tech on the horizon looks promising.

According to the Commercial Construction Index, demand for modular construction is increasing, and industry insiders see it as a major growth area.

“2019 will be a critical year in the evolution of 5G as global roll-out pilots will shape the landscape and specifications will start to be formalized. Intelligent connectivity, enabled by 5G, will be the catalyst for the social-economic growth that the 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution) could bring.” – World Economic Forum

In a recent meeting of the American Concrete Institute, Brian Moore of the FMI Institute stated that the future is changing and that there are three factors that will either make or break a construction company in the next ten years.

Blockchain, the technology that powers things like bitcoin, is set to revolutionize the way that construction companies, engineering firms, architects, and customers interact. Blockchain is defined as a growing list of records, or blocks, that are connected using cryptography. Each block contains a link to the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. It’s a little like communicating on the cloud, but with intense security, and on some serious steroids.

Construction workers account for 7% of the world’s workforce, but in a world where robotics is replacing people’s jobs, these workers seem relatively safe. Why? According to an article in TechTarget, it’s because the industry isn’t adopting new technology fast enough.

With 20% of construction time spent fixing errors, a Barcelona-based company decided to build a solution that automates the process of monitoring the jobsite. The robot uses LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and autonomous vehicle technology (the same kind of thing used in driverless cars) to build computer models of jobsites.

It is a fact that much of the United States infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly, but the commonly held belief that our spending on such infrastructure has dramatically decreased does not appear to be upheld by the evidence, according to a new report from the Brookings Institute.

hh2 Powertools reported on the rapid growth in investment into construction automation, but an editorial by Chris Stanley, of the Concrete Block Association, says that it’s an enticing solution that overlooks the real problems.

Investors are pouring money into construction technology start-ups at a rapidly increasing rate, and it’s making many in the industry stop and take notice.

While many construction technologies seem like a hammer searching for a nail, many new ventures, like hh2, are combining the best of tech with the best of modern breakthroughs.

In search of new ways to reuse non-recyclable glass, scientists have found a simple answer: they’re turning glass back into sand.

With such rapid advances in technology, the options for something as basic as glass are no longer simple. There are extensive selections to choose from when building your project, and your purpose, geography, and usage play an essential role.

With a population of more than twelve million, the city of Sao Paolo, Brazil, is a thriving metropolis with a bustling economy and miles after miles of concrete, asphalt, and steel. But one architecture firm is doing its part to make an oasis deep in the heart of the city.

Introducing the newest member of our sales team, Bryan Stapley. Bryan is a Utah native, but he has lived in many places across the U.S. and abroad. He joined hh2 in 2019, and he is so excited about the opportunity...

Introducing Kevin Hadley! Kevin is one of many valued employees at hh2. He serves as the vice president of the Sales Department. He has been with hh2 for more than 13 years. Kevin’s day to day consists of working...

2018 brought big changes across the globe, and it was no different here at hh2 Cloud Services. This year was filled with conferences, new product releases and feature updates across multiple platforms and solutions...

While the thought of new technology is exciting for some, it takes some time and proven results for others to get behind adopting a change in one’s workflow. This can be explained in detail in the Diffusion of Innovation...

It’s no surprise that the construction industry is benefiting in large parts from artificial intelligence (AI). A new job within the industry, a data scientist, is using AI to their advantage. Software and computing systems are...

A recent case study was conducted by the American architectural, planning and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) that show its recent advancements within digital fabrication. Its 3D-printed...

Efficiency, safety and sustainability within the construction industry are taking leaps forward as technology continues to improve. The 21st century has brought a plethora of new advancements in...

With the labor shortage in the construction industry not showing any big signs of relief, a push towards automation that includes robotics and exoskeletons may soon be on its way—much to the delight...

New worksite ideas come and go, but here are three new emergent technologies that appear to have gotten over the early hurdles and are proving to be invaluable on the job site. Telematics: As the...

Ring, which claims to be the “world’s most popular doorbell,” has just announced the next generation of their groundbreaking product. Ring is a doorbell with audio and video capabilities, so customers—or...

“As more young people enter the construction industry, they expect technology,” said an international firm that works with contractors to develop IT solutions. “Estimating, project managing, and...

As I was reading the news this week I was intrigued to find two headlines that completely contradict each other. The first: “The Construction Industry is Short on Human Workers and Ripe For a Robotic...

Apple makes some nice-looking devices, but—let’s face it—the Apple watch isn’t one of them. It’s a mini iPhone, and that’s great if you’re a minimalist. But even Dick Tracy’s watch had a better sense of style, and...

Buena Vista Biomass Power is a clean burning biomass plant designed to output 18MW of base load electric generating capacity. Brahma Group, a commercial builder exceeding $300 million annually, has offices in...

While the report is Australian, the points are global: the Construction Industry Innovation & Productivity Report, studying 200 industry leaders, states the 90% of believe it is valuable to stay up-to-date with new...

Even as Apple is developing new iPhones and getting ready to move into their incredible ring-shaped campus, they’ve been secretly working on a whole new kind of product: a wearable, non-invasive device that...

Architects are always looking for new and wild ideas that, though completely impractical, will stretch the art of construction. The Great American Architect himself, Frank Lloyd Wright, famously proposed...

After my article yesterday about the new “Internet of Things”-style light bulbs, I went to Lowe’s last night to check them out for myself. I have several lights that I’d like to replace with smart lights: the front porch, the...

Reporting on the latest trends in housing construction, the Wall Street Journal today wrote about a development that is not so much about the existing residential tech, but is more about where the future is headed...

It seems like there are dozens of new technologies popping up, claiming to be the Next Big Thing. It can be difficult for managers in any business to keep up with the latest and greatest innovations, especially...

According to market analysis group CCS Insight, the wearable technology industry will be worth $34 billion by 2020. This may come as a shock to people who remember the ill-fated Google Glass, which literally got...

The world is changing at breakneck speed, and the construction industry is at the forefront of new technology. A few months ago, Power Tools reported on a man who built his own concrete-spewing 3D printer...

I bought my first flash drive when I was in college in 2002. It was amazing. At 32 megs, it could hold more data than 18 floppy disks. I bought it at the university bookstore for $200, and I carried it with me wherever...

It used to be mark of a forward-looking company to have Wi-Fi in the job trailer. Now with the proliferation of online meetings and the connected nature of modern business, it has become a necessity...

At a time when the refugee crisis seems worse than ever, IKEA’s “Better Shelter” is booming around the world. While IKEA furniture has a reputation (true or false) for being cheap and disposable, in the world of...

3-D printers have already taken the tech industry by storm—news stories of 3-D printed shoes, wheels, artificial hearts and even guns are breaking one after another. While there are downsides to 3D printing...

By now we’ve heard of the circular economy, a process for making the world more sustainable, creating a cycle that reuses and captures resources. Now, circular economies are turning to urban planning to make our cities into circular cities. Right now, more than half of the population lives in a city, and by 2050 that will rise to two thirds. If we’re going to continue to build up and out, we need to figure out how to better use resources.